Candida story
Candida, a comedy by playwright George Bernard Shaw, was written in 1894 and first published in 1898, as part of his Plays Pleasant. The central characters are clergyman James Morell, his wife Candida and a youthful poet, Eugene Marchbanks, who tries to win Candida's affections. The play questions Victorian notions of love and marriage, asking what a woman really desires from her husband. The cleric is a Christian Socialist, allowing Shaw—himself a Fabian Socialist—to weave political issues, current at the time, into the story.
10 total · 8 major · 2 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| husband and wife | major | James and Candida |
| infatuation | major | Eugene, his eloquence notwithstanding, was childishly besotted with the much older Candida. |
| love triangle | major | Candida, James, Eugene |
| obsessive love | major | Eugene obsessed over Candida. |
| romantic jealousy | major | Husband James is somewhat jealous at Eugene over wife Candida. |
| the battle of the sexes | major | Candida pits her wit against the two mens', and the role of women vis-a-vis men is discussed |
| the nature of love | major | Eugene is a poet and philosophises and rhapsodizes about what love is |
| unrequited love | major | although the emotions portrayed are somewhat ambiguous, Candida rejects Eugene |
| epic love | minor | Eugene seems to imagine he has some sort of idealized love for Candida that is better off unconsumated |
| test of love | minor | James appears to test Candida's love by deliberately leaving her alone with Eugene |